


A Male Body

by 7Angel_Tongue7



Series: Table-Legs and Buttered Bread [3]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angels are Genderfluid (Good Omens), Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale is Not Genderfluid, Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley is Bad at Being a Demon (Good Omens), Crowley's Plants (Good Omens), Demons Don't Say Please, First-Time Corporation, Gabriel Doesn't Understand A Not-Genderfluid Angel, Gabriel is Not a Fan of Bodies (Good Omens), Genderfluid Character, It's Tickety-Boo, M/M, Not-A-Big-Mention, Plant-Related Humour, Queer Themes, Soft Warning for Mention of Body Dysmorphia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27649439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7Angel_Tongue7/pseuds/7Angel_Tongue7
Summary: A flashback to Aziraphale's first experience with corporation:'It’s a little time before the creation of the world and time has not been invented yet. Some time, nonetheless, has passed since the Fall, and Gabriel has decided that the remaining angels should participate in a team-building exercise, to cheer them up, strengthen departmental bonds, and practice for the physical world. (The blueprints have been circulating round Head Office but are still puzzling to him.) A young angel named Aziraphale is finding participation difficult....'
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Table-Legs and Buttered Bread [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020652
Kudos: 9





	A Male Body

It’s a little time before the creation of the world and time has not been invented yet. Some time, nonetheless, has passed since the Fall, and Gabriel has decided that the remaining angels should participate in a team-building exercise, to cheer them up, strengthen departmental bonds, and practice for the physical world. (The blueprints have been circulating round Head Office but are still puzzling to him.) A young angel named Aziraphale is finding participation difficult.  
“Archangel Gabriel?”  
“Yes, Aziraphale?”  
“I’m not sure I can do the exercise, sir.”  
“The exercise is perfectly clear.”  
“Perhaps you could explain it again, sir? I’m dreadfully sorry.”  
“Very well, Aziraphale. I want you to take one of those… bodies… the Almighty has prepared for the new world she is making. You understand that part?”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“Wonderful! So, you take this... body, and manifest in it. Then you can take the sword from the wall, there, and participate in practice with it. Swish-swish - like so.”  
“Yes, sir, I understand that part, sir.”  
“So what’s the problem, Aziraphale?”  
“It’s just, I don’t think I can take that body, sir.”  
“What’s wrong with it? It’s a perfectly good body – those muscles, very firm flesh, all the organs in working order. Capital effort, for… flesh.”  
“Yes, sir. I’m sure it’s a lovely body.”  
“Well, what's the problem?”  
“It’s just, I can’t manifest in the body of a woman, sir!”  
“A woman?”  
Gabriel looks puzzled. Someone comes to whisper in his ear.  
“Do you mean that this body-designated-female does not correspond to your preferred manifestation of human gender, Aziraphale?”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“You would prefer a body-designated-male?”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“Well, that’s very picky, Aziraphale. It’s not like the body affects what’s on the inside. You don’t have to keep it. Change it up a bit!”  
“Even so. I really don’t mean to cause any trouble. I just can’t sir.”  
Gabriel sighs and snaps his fingers.  
“Will you get on with it, now?”  
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

...

It’s eight days after the end of the world and Crowley is watering his plants. Aziraphale is drinking a cup of tea in the corner.  
“Really, angel? You can’t manifest in a female body if you have to? That’s quite unusual, isn’t it?”  
“Well, yes, Crowley, I suppose so. Can you?”  
“I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t remember it making much of a difference. I would’ve put on any body they gave me, I think.”  
Crowley frowns and points a finger at a trembling plant.  
“Well, it’s not like that for me. It has to be a male one. I can’t imagine what it would have been like in a female one. All wrong. I don’t even want to think about it.”  
“Hm. Interesting.”  
Crowley glares at the plant, distracted.  
“Hey, angel?”  
“Yes, Crowley?”  
“D’think you could miracle away a spot?”  
“What? That’s cheating!”  
Crowley sighs. He’s getting lenient in his old age.  
“Yeah, but I just don’t have the heart to go full punishment on the one. Just one little miracle?”  
“What’s the magic word?”  
“What? Oh – I dunno – Balderdash?”  
“What?”  
“No? What is it then?”  
“I meant, please, Crowley.”  
“Oh please!”  
“Good, excellent. Tickety boo.”  
The spot vanishes.  
“Christ, angel.”  
Crowley looks at Aziraphale suspiciously. He smiles.  
“All gone.”  
Crowley sighs, defeated.  
“Thanks, angel.”  
He thinks again, about bodies and gender, the Archangel Gabriel, Nanny Astoreth, and Aziraphale's tartan bow tie.  
“Defin’tely queer.”  
“What was that, dear?”  
“N’thing, n’thing!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the last for this series that I've written as of today, but I have a feeling I'll write more. I've tried to play a little with the idea of how it would feel to only 'get' a gender some time into your existence. And how someone with a fixed gender identity would feel in the gender-fluid world of angels. I haven't used the words 'transgender' or 'cisgender' in my tags or description because, in this way of imagining things, angels don't have bodily gender at their creation. I think of Aziraphale in his male body as cisgender, but he would have been transgender, in this story, if Gabriel had insisted he corporate in a female body. Gabriel doesn't though, because that would be an intense emotional story that I don't have the experience to write. I'd be really interested to know if someone has though.


End file.
